Last Weekend's Ride

I've been meaning to get these pics posted for several days, but things have been hectic here (DH home with a sprained ankle, gorgeous weather keeping me busy outside, etc.), so I'm a little slow.

Last weekend we took a really nice ride into the dune plantation across the road. We started out with DH on Ria and me on Quintas. With all her pain issues involved, Ria has been a lot more energetic and eager on rides. Unfortunately she also has been acting up some the couple times I've ridden her alone. We additionally want to get her trained for one-handed riding, which DH is more experienced with doing. So I asked DH to ride her some to do the training and see how she behaved. She behaved fine and is making good progress on the training.

For once I actually remembered to get the camera out of my pocket and take pics on the trail. Unfortunately, not all of them came out very well (as in most of those I took of DH).

We rode through the woods and out to the road that headed to the "stenslet" (I don't know how to translate slet. It is an open area that has a combination of stone and sand on the bottom. Very desert-like in some ways). I'd been out the road to the stenslet but hadn't ridden into it before. It is gorgeous out there!

You see that sandy area out in front of us in that last picture? When we got there, Quintas suddenly shook herself really hard. Just as I was recovering from that (I've never had a horse shake when I was riding before), she started getting down on her knees to roll in the sand! We got her up again and nothing happened, but it sure did freak me out plenty.

So we hurried to swap horses back because I was somewhat disturbed by that one. Of course she didn't do any of it for DH. But it did give us something to laugh about once I was over being freaked out.

Ria sure does shine really pretty in the sun! I am riding in my roping saddle, by the way. The first one I bought for it that ended up not fitting and the seller refused to take it back despite her promise to do so if it ended up not fitting after she was trained. But since I sit way better in it than in the second one I bought, I guess I ended up a little lucky anyway.

I had some trouble that day because we had to take my stirrup turners off temporarily. To make the long explanation short and understandable to non-horse people, Ria is being retrained from having a very stiff right side using the CorrecTOR so I need to adjust my stirrups crooked for the process to work. I am pretty short so already needed my stirrups close to the last hole to have the right length with the turners in, making it impossible to adjust them properly for this. So we took the turners off so the length was right. This is painful for my knees. Since then, we've soaked the fenders in water and twisted them hard with a stick in them, so they should be more comfortable next time even without the turners. But I am looking forward to getting her retrained so I can have them back.

Back to the story of the ride...

From the stenslet, we rode back towards home along the stream (Knasborg Å).

It was really a great ride and I think all four of us enjoyed it. I was very happy to see that Ria's hooves are enough improved for her to be comfortable walking and even JOGGING on gravel. This is great progress and proof that our do-it-ourselves farrier project was a good idea.